# Can a Machine be Conscious? Towards Universal Criteria for Machine Consciousness

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.15369 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15369/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 70 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08708/) (2023)
- [Could a Large Language Model be Conscious?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07103/) (2023)
- [Will we ever have Conscious Machines?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.14132/) (2020)
- [Morality, Machines and the Interpretation Problem: A Value-based, Wittgensteinian Approach to Building Moral Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.02728/) (2021)
- [Have a break from making decisions, have a MARS: The Multi-valued Action Reasoning System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.03283/) (2021)
- [Minimum Levels of Interpretability for Artificial Moral Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00660/) (2023)
- [Breaking Bad News in the Era of Artificial Intelligence and Algorithmic Medicine: An Exploration of Disclosure and its Ethical Justification using the Hedonic Calculus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01431/) (2022)
- [Do Artificial Reinforcement-Learning Agents Matter Morally?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1410.8233/) (2014)
- [Developing moral AI to support antimicrobial decision making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.06327/) (2022)
- [Establishing Meta-Decision-Making for AI: An Ontology of Relevance, Representation and Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00608/) (2022)
- [If our aim is to build morality into an artificial agent, how might we begin to go about doing so?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08295/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Beyond Mimicry: Preference Coherence in LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.13630/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

As artificially intelligent systems become more anthropomorphic and pervasive, and their potential impact on humanity more urgent, discussions about the possibility of machine consciousness have significantly intensified, and it is sometimes seen as 'the holy grail'. Many concerns have been voiced about the ramifications of creating an artificial conscious entity. This is compounded by a marked lack of consensus around what constitutes consciousness and by an absence of a universal set of criteria for determining consciousness. By going into depth on the foundations and characteristics of consciousness, we propose five criteria for determining whether a machine is conscious, which can also be applied more generally to any entity. This paper aims to serve as a primer and stepping stone for researchers of consciousness, be they in philosophy, computer science, medicine, or any other field, to further pursue this holy grail of philosophy, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.